MoonPay Acquires Crypto Payment Processor Helio

MoonPay plans to expand its trading and marketplace volume by acquiring Helio.

The acquisition adds the technology, team and ecosystem of Helio, a cryptocurrency payment processor that supports Solana and other blockchains, to the crypto payments capabilities of MoonPay, the companies said in a Monday (Jan. 13) press release.

“Helio’s technology and expertise strengthen our ability to deliver efficient, secure and scalable solutions for crypto commerce, trading infrastructure and marketplaces,” MoonPay CEO and co-founder Ivan Soto-Wright said in the release. “With MoonPay and Helio combined, we now offer the most comprehensive product for on-chain payments.”

MoonPay’s solutions facilitate access to the crypto economy for more than 20 million verified accounts across 180 countries, and for global brands, according to a separate Monday press release emailed to PYMNTS.

With its acquisition, MoonPay adds Helio’s suite of payment tools that make it easy for marketplaces, apps, trading terminals and decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to accept USDC and other digital currencies, per the separate release. These tools are used by more than 6,000 sellers and over 1 million users, the release said.

The entire Helio team will join MoonPay, Helio said in a Monday blog post.

“Most of our customers today are early adopters, but the opportunity is much larger,” Helio said in the post. “Only 5%-10% of crypto holders actively use their assets. In this next chapter, we aim to unleash the spending power of millions of crypto owners, enabling a rapidly expanding network of Helio-powered online stores and apps to sell more with crypto.”

MoonPay said Dec. 30 that it secured approval under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) cryptocurrency regulation. The company said the approval is a sign of its readiness to expand its footprint in the region while maintaining security and compliance.

In October, Ripple announced that MoonPay was one of the exchange partners and customers for its U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD).

In May, MoonPay launched Web3 Tools, a platform for “building mainstream-ready digital experiences” that offers services such as authentication, identity verification, advanced token-gating, ticketing and insights.